DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This action is in response to the communication filed on 8/20/2026. Claims 1-9, 16-26 are pending.
Examiner Note
The examiner is here to serve, to assist, and to help applicant to the very best of his ability. The Primary Patent Examiner position is a position of serving and it is an honor to externally serve the applicant and attorney and to internally serve junior examiners and supervisors. The goal of the examiner is to work with and assist applicant to move cases along as efficiently as possible.
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Priority
This application claims priority of 63/234,681, filed 8/18/2021. The assignee of record is Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. The listed inventor(s) is/are: Bagheri, Hossein; Jung, Hyejung; Bhamri, Ankit; Löhr, Joachim; Ganesan, Karthikeyan; Golitschek Edler von Elbwart, Alexander; Nangia, Vijay; Kuchibhotla, Ravi.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8, 21-23 & 25-26 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims provided that all other rejections under 35 USC 101/112 (if any) are obviated upon upcoming amendments/arguments without raising new issues that necessitate further consideration/search.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 8/20/2026 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-5, 9, 16-20 & 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 20180014284 A1, published 1/11/2018; hereinafter Yi) in view of Wang et al. (US 20170290030 A1, published 10/5/2017; hereinafter Wan).
For Claim 1, Yi teaches a user equipment ("UE") comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:
receive a downlink ("DL") transmission in a semi-persistently scheduled ("SPS") resource of a plurality of SPS resources within an SPS period, the SPS resource corresponding to a first SPS configuration of a plurality of SPS configurations (Please see screenshot of Yi Figs. 6 & 7 below, thank you:
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Please see relevant paragraphs, e.g. Yi ¶ 0014-0019, 0046-0049, 0074, 0080, 0194, 0198, 0255.
Please see Yi Claims 1-5 below, thank you:
1. A method for receiving, by a user equipment (UE), downlink signals, the method comprising; receiving, by the UE, semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration information on N SPS resource configurations, where N is an integer larger than 1; and transmitting, by the UE, an SPS status information indicating activation or deactivation status for each of the N SPS resource configurations.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SPS status information includes a bitmap including N bits respectively corresponding to the N SPS resource configurations, wherein each bit of the N bits is corresponding to an index of each of the N SPS resource configurations and indicates whether an SPS resource configuration corresponding to a bit of the N bits is in an activated or deactivated status.
3. The method according to claim 1, receiving an SPS command to activate or deactivate at least one SPS resource configuration, wherein the SPS status information is transmitted in response to the SPS command
4. The method according to claim 3, transmitting the SPS status information using an SPS resource configuration activated before the SPS command is received.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the SPS status information is transmitted via a medium access control (MAC) signaling);
generate a Hybrid Automated Repeat Request ("HARQ") feedback corresponding to the received DL transmission (Yi ¶ 0108 For downlink, only initial transmissions use semi-persistent scheduling. Retransmissions are explicitly scheduled using a PDCCH assignment. This follows directly from the use of asynchronous HARQ protocol in the downlink.
Please also see Yi ¶ 0110, 0114, 0116, 0183, 0187-0188);
determine an SPS reference corresponding to the DL transmission, the SPS reference comprising a reference SPS configuration of the plurality of SPS configurations, a reference SPS resource of the plurality of SPS resources, or a combination thereof (Yi ¶ 0016, 0049, 091, 0194-0202, 0255, Claims 1-5); and
transmit the HARQ feedback in the determined UL resource (Yi ¶ 0186-0188).
Yi does not explicitly teach wherein the reference SPS resource is different than the SPS resource; determine an uplink ("UL") resource for transmitting the HARQ feedback based on the determined SPS reference, wherein the UL resource is associated with the reference SPS configuration, the reference SPS resource, or the combination thereof
However, Wan teaches wherein the reference SPS resource is different than the SPS resource (Wan ¶ 0108); determine an uplink ("UL") resource for transmitting the HARQ feedback based on the determined SPS reference, wherein the UL resource is associated with the reference SPS configuration, the reference SPS resource, or the combination thereof (Wan ¶ 0108 in case that the HARQ feedback is transmitted in an uplink sub-frame together with a SR of the communication device, according to Solution B, the HARQ feedback may be transmitted on the PUCCH resource position related with the uplink SPS release and the SR of the communication device may be modulated onto a demodulation reference signal symbol at a predetermined slot of the same PUCCH resource position).
Wan and Yi are analogous art because they are both related to SPS.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the resource techniques of Wan with the system of Yi because the communication device may implicitly acknowledge the uplink SPS release based on the PUCCH resource position of a HARQ feedback, which thereby implements more accurate and quicker acknowledgement of uplink SPS release (Wan ¶ 0018).
For Claim 2, Yi-Wan teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the SPS reference comprises the reference SPS configuration, and wherein, to determine the UL resource, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to determine the UL resource based on a Downlink Control Information ("DCI") activating the reference SPS configuration, and a respective SPS resource associated with the reference SPS configuration (Yi ¶ 0017-0018, 0095-0097, 0105).
For Claim 3, Yi-Wan teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein, to receive the DL transmission, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to receive a Physical Downlink Shared Channel ("PDSCH") exclusively on a single SPS resource of the plurality of SPS resources (Yi ¶ 0076-0077).
For Claim 4, Yi-Wan teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine a HARQ process identifier ("ID") for the DL transmission based on the SPS reference (Yi ¶ 0116-0121).
For Claim 5, Yi-Wan teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the plurality of SPS configurations corresponds to a plurality of SPS occasions in the SPS period, and wherein the reference SPS configuration corresponds to a respective SPS occasion that ends a latest amongst the plurality of SPS occasions (Yi ¶ 0107).
For Claim 9, Yi-Wan teaches a method performed by a base station, the method comprising: determining a semi-persistently scheduled ("SPS") resource of a plurality of SPS resources within an SPS period corresponding to an SPS configuration of a plurality of SPS configurations (Yi Figs. 6-7, ¶ 0014-0019, 0046-0049, 0074, 0080, 0194, 0198, 0255);
transmitting a DL transmission in the determined SPS resource (Yi ¶ 0108, 0186-0188, 0255);
determining an SPS reference corresponding to the DL transmission, the SPS reference comprising a reference SPS configuration of the plurality of SPS configurations, a reference SPS resource of the plurality of SPS resources, or a combination thereof (Yi ¶ 0110, 0114, 0116, 0183, 0187-0188); and
receiving Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request ("HARQ") feedback corresponding to the DL transmission in an uplink ("UL") resource corresponding to the determined SPS reference, the reference SPS resource being different than the SPS resource (Yi ¶ 0016, 0049, 091, 0194-0202, 0255, Claims 1-5).
For Claim(s) 16, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 17, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 2 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 18, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 3 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 19, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 4 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim(s) 20, the claim(s) is/are substantially similar to claim 5 and therefore is/are rejected for the same reasoning set forth above.
For Claim 24, Yi teaches a base station for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the base station to:
determine a semi-persistently scheduled ("SPS") resource of a plurality of SPS resources within an SPS period corresponding to an SPS configuration of a plurality of SPS configurations (Yi Figs. 6-7, ¶ 0014-0019, 0046-0049, 0074, 0080, 0194, 0198, 0255);
transmit a DL transmission in the determined SPS resource (Yi ¶ 0108, 0186-0188, 0255);
determine an SPS reference corresponding to the DL transmission, the SPS reference comprising a reference SPS configuration of the plurality of SPS configurations, a reference SPS resource of the plurality of SPS resources, or a combination thereof (Yi ¶ 0110, 0114, 0116, 0183, 0187-0188); and
receive Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request ("HARQ") feedback corresponding to the DL transmission in an uplink ("UL") resource corresponding to the determined SPS reference, the reference SPS resource being different than the SPS resource (Yi ¶ 0016, 0049, 091, 0194-0202, 0255, Claims 1-5).
Yi does not explicitly teach wherein the reference SPS resource is different than the SPS resource; determine an uplink ("UL") resource for transmitting the HARQ feedback based on the determined SPS reference, wherein the UL resource is associated with the reference SPS configuration, the reference SPS resource, or the combination thereof
However, Wan teaches wherein the reference SPS resource is different than the SPS resource (Wan ¶ 0108); determine an uplink ("UL") resource for transmitting the HARQ feedback based on the determined SPS reference, wherein the UL resource is associated with the reference SPS configuration, the reference SPS resource, or the combination thereof (Wan ¶ 0108).
Wan and Yi are analogous art because they are both related to SPS.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the resource techniques of Wan with the system of Yi because the communication device may implicitly acknowledge the uplink SPS release based on the PUCCH resource position of a HARQ feedback, which thereby implements more accurate and quicker acknowledgement of uplink SPS release (Wan ¶ 0018).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Keller at (571)270-3863 or michael.keller@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo Jeong can be reached at 571-272-9617.
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/MICHAEL A KELLER/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
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